HackensackUMC Awarded $2.8 Million in Research Funding for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

May 7, 2015 04:36 PM

Hackensack University Medical Center is pleased to announce that Yukiko Kimura, M.D., chief of Pediatric Rheumatology at the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital,and her team have been awarded $2.8 million in funding by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study treatment strategies for juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The study is one of just 46 proposals that PCORI approved for funding to advance the field of comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and provide patients, healthcare providers, and other clinical decision makers with information that will help them make better-informed choices.

“I want to congratulate Dr. Yukiko Kimuraand her entire team,” said Robert C. Garrett, president and chief executive officer of the Hackensack University Health Network. “They are to be commended for their dedication and commitment to providing the highest quality care for patients with juvenile arthritis, as well as the innovative research they are doing to promote better outcomes for these children.”

PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative clinical effectiveness research that will provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions. PCORI is committed to seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.

JIA affects as many as 300,000 children in the U.S. and is a leading cause of acquired disability in childhood. It is a chronic disease that has no cure and can start at any age, even infancy. More than half of children with JIA have polyarticular JIA (poly JIA), a subset in which five or more joints are affected.

“Only patients and their families truly know how devastating poly JIA can be,” said Dr. Kimura. “We are eager to begin this work, which we believe will make a tremendous impact on how this disease is treated as well as improve patients’ lives.”

Dr. Kimura will lead this study, which compares three different treatment approaches started as first-line treatment for children with poly JIA at over 50 Childhood Arthritis & Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) research sites across the U.S. and Canada. Information learned in the STOP-JIA study will then be shared with healthcare providers and patients/caregivers to improve the lives of many more children with poly JIA. The award has been approved pending completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and issuance of a formal award contract to HackensackUMC.

About Hackensack University Medical Center

HackensackUMC, a nonprofit teaching and research hospital located in Bergen County, NJ, is the largest provider of inpatient and outpatient services in the state. Founded in 1888 as the county’s first hospital, it is the flagship hospital of Hackensack University Health Network, one of the largest health networks in the state comprised of 1,250 beds, nearly 10,000 employees and 2,700 credentialed physicians. HackensackUMC was listed as the number one hospital in New Jersey in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospital rankings for 2014-15. It is one of the top 30 hospitals in the nation by receiving 11 national specialty rankings, including a national ranking for the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital in Neurology and Neurosurgery in the 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospitals. The children’s hospital is housed with the Donna A. Sanzari Women’s Hospital in the Sarkis and Siran Gabrellian Women’s and Children’s Pavilion, which was designed with The Deirdre Imus Environmental Health Center, and was included on the Green Guide’s list of Top 10 Green Hospitals in the U.S. HackensackUMC is one of Healthgrades America's 50 Best Hospitals™ for nine years in a row, and received the Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™ 13 years in a row. The medical center has also been named a Leapfrog Top Hospital, and received 23 Gold Seals of Approval™ by the Joint Commission – more than any other hospital in the country. It was the first hospital in New Jersey and second in the nation to become a Magnet® recognized hospital for nursing excellence; receiving its fifth consecutive designation in 2014. HackensackUMC is the Hometown Hospital of the New York Giants and the New York Red Bulls and was Official Medical Services Provider to The Barclays PGA Golf Tournament and the NY/NJ Super Bowl XLVIII Host Committee. It remains committed to its community through fundraising and community events. To learn more, visit: www.HackensackUMC.org.

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